The L.A. problem


I think Jamie went about it the wrong way. He went straight to the bigwigs in the second biggest school district in the USA, coming essentially from nowhere. Of course they are going to ignore him, for several reasons.

* These politicians care very much about their position of power and plentiful salaries. They are not going to risk all that just because some random foreign dude shows up at their doorsteps demanding change. The mayor or school inspector of a small town where everybody knows everybody, sure, they don't have at all that much to lose.

* Labour unions as mentioned in the show are very vigilant and reluctant to change due to outside pressure. They are also very powerful and are good in lobbying politicians and policy makers to get their will through. They are there to "defend" their members which really means monopolizing the power over their area of interest. They are only interested in change that comes from within the organisation.

* These organizations are bound by contracts with suppliers which are very big corporations with a lot of money and lobbyists. They make sure that the schools buy their stuff and they do not like competition. It's also not unlikely that they are giving the politicians kickbacks further lowering the incentive to change.

The way he should have done is to extend the program in WV first and make a public fuss about how it benefits the society there. Make it the talking point of the media. That is what politicians listens to, the hot topic of the day in the media. Politicians want to stay on top of what's PC for the moment. They don't want to be the last ones that still haven't implemented the latest fad, that makes them look bad and that's not good for getting votes. This however is the longer and more difficult route and would probably not have been a very good TV-show.

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